Agree with getting the above mentioned books, Milepost and Alaskan Camping by the Church's. We went to Alaska this past summer on our own, took our time and seen what we wanted to. Had such a good time DH wants to go back again this summer. We did check into a CG that had several caravan groups while in Canada, we noticed the visiting among them so if you like that go for it. BTW we never once made a reservation for a site the whole time we were out there. Once we got the very last spot at a CG near Denali we figured no big deal if we didn't get a spot just part of the adventure.